


Of Fathers & Foxes

by PintsOfGeekery



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Argent is observant, Chris Argent & Stiles Stilinski Friendship, Chris Argent Feels, Chris Argent respects Stiles, Cork Fic, De-Void, Derek's Loft, Desperation Play, Difficult Decisions, Episode: s03e22 De-Void, Gen, Hurt Chris Argent, Nogitsune Stiles Stilinski, Nogitsune Trauma, One Shot, POV Stiles, Post-Allison's Death, Post-Nogitsune, Post-Nogitsune Stiles Stilinski, S3Bx10, S3x22, Sad Chris Argent, Self-Sacrifice, Sheriff Stilinski's first name is Szarafin, Stiles fights the Nogitsune, Stiles vs Nogitsune, Stilinski Family Feels, Teen Wolf Headcanon, Unscene, attempted suicide (mentioned), season 3b, stiles remembers everything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-26
Updated: 2016-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-29 04:29:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6359362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PintsOfGeekery/pseuds/PintsOfGeekery
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Stiles has a question for Chris Argent. While waiting, Stiles thinks back on some of the time he was possessed by the Nogitsune.</i>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>** THIS WORK IS CURRENTLY BEING REVISED. Will be re-posted as one of several post-Nogitsune talks in a renamed Chaptered fic once complete! **</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Fathers & Foxes

**Author's Note:**

> ** THIS WORK IS CURRENTLY BEING REVISED. The complete revision will be posted soon! **

**It was strange.**

I was rarely alone with Chris Argent, and I wondered if it was just how things went or due to my reluctance to revisit _That Day_. _Those Days_. Before Donav–no, I should be honest–before that Deadpool-driven Chemist, I thought of That Time as **His** _Days_ as a way to differentiate like Scott does between me and **Him**. **Him** , the 1000 year old Japanese fox spirit that decided to take up residence and then attempt to evict me from my own head. It had been a very, very long time since He’d had any sort of family or cared for anyone but Himself, so His amusement at my refusal when His actions were going to hurt people quickly turned to anger. Anger included commands (shouted at me in a long-forgotten Japanese dialect over and over) for me to just obey, then in great frustration to simply shut up and die. Me, die? Inevitable. Me, shut up? Inconceivable! Argent flicks his eyes to me, still talking to one of his Hunter contacts on the phone. I guess my bitter chuckle was louder than I thought. Why ask him now? Why bring up anything to do with That Day to him after we’ve already spoken and wept over his own daughter’s death?  Chalk it up to incurable curiosity, I guess. The questions I have about what happened during the PSATs and on other occasions can wait for another time. Anything unanswered about the nogitsune feels like a weapon He could use in the future, and I think we can all agree He’s already done enough damage in the past. Today, however, the question I have for Argent is about Argent and a certain moment between him, Him and me.  


Looking back now, I can see how at first He was almost proud of how I’d freed the fireflies from the Nemeton and left phosphors on the key, both of those escaping His notice until after they’d served their purpose. Foxes, I learned, love tricks and cleverness regardless of the source. Most hosts, He whispered to me, would surrender before a nogitsune exerted their full power; He’d overtaken people in the past who’d broken under less influence than He pushed at me for Barrow. I felt His excitement about the prospect of His plan succeeding (turned out He was psyched about having two(!) kitsune at hand), how He reveled in His own Cleverness. I remember running past breakers at the power station as a moment of hesitation and stomach-dropping dread struck. I would have stopped except next thing I knew my shoulder was wrenched and my entire body flooded with enough electricity and foxfire to kill me several times over. Regular human me anyway, but apparently not Me with Him riding shotgun. That’s when I truly started to lose.

He came on strong after that jumpstart, in waves and then constantly. He _pulled_ on something inside me, holding it tight as He punched through the Oni and literally crushed its spirit. The night I ended up in the Coyote den He tied red string to my scissors, stabbing them into my bed to taunt my friends. We fought. I won. I hastily grabbed Lydia’s drawing of the Nemeton and shoved it into the nearest frame, scribbled a short explanation about the Nemeton being the key to trapping Him in a note and addressed it to Lydia, hoping it would get to her somehow. I fouled up His plan at the Hospital enough that He had to enact His Plan B of duplicating my mother’s scans. That was when He stopped crowing about my trickster traits. When I sent my Dad the text starting AMOK - ‘Am ok’ being one of our secret codes (cop’s kid, hello), I thought it flew under His radar. It didn’t. He clamped down hard. Pushing my way through again to put the wrapping paper in Roscoe, stealing the nameplate off my Dad’s desk and hiding it in the dummy package to tip off where the real bomb had been sent…that exhausted me. He was gaining strength and ground by the minute. For hours after that emergence I couldn’t do anything but watch Him lie, manipulate and hurt people. I started screaming and struggling at the Clinic, so He knocked out Kira and made me feel Scott’s pain. My best friend’s agony came first, all the physical pain so jaggedly spiky and hot, increasing as He twisted the Oni-born blade left then right against organs and bone. Then came my brother's emotional turmoil overpowering the bodily torment: fear mixed with confusion, despair and anger spilling up into my veins as a tumbling cold tsunami, crushing my spirit while making me wish I had knees to fall down upon. I couldn't ignore this pain nor the overwhelming pleasure the Nogitsune was showing me. His transmutation of it all made it into this heavy, rich, velvet blanket of humanly unimaginable bone-deep power and _satisfaction_. Even that wasn't enough to drown out my shame or guilt which came immediately on the heels of that display of power. I could have kissed Deaton for knocking me - **Us** \- out and stopping those feelings.  

Eichen House is hazy, like a dream. Between the lichen, the amphetamines, the sedatives and the guilt I was full of….one day I’ll focus more on my brief stay in that nut house. Right now, it sounds like the Hunter heart-to-heart is almost over, so I’m skipping ahead to the part with Argent.

My Dad, Argent, Allison and Derek saw the chessboard I’d left out. They figured out that the loft was both a trap and where He was heading next. Seeing my Dad open the loft door wary and near desperate, watching my own wrists being offered out in false compliance, hearing my Father firmly proclaim that He wasn’t his son -Me- and feeling His excitement at impending chaos made me throw everything I had into breaking through. It seemed hopeless. I was scrambling for purchase on a smooth glass cliff. He snapped through the handcuffs without effort, caught the taser lines Allison fired at Him unflinching and tossed Derek around like a child. During it all He laughed at my screaming and my efforts to get control. I heard Argent cock his gun, saw my Dad’s hope in his uncertainty of aim and I was terrified. Szarafin Stilinski, Sheriff of Beacon Hills, widower to Claudia and father to me, would never give up hope. I knew I was in a losing battle and there was an extremely strong possibility that this malicious, angry, insatiable fox would wear me like a Halloween costume until the second coming. I knew that He was counting on my Dad’s hope causing hesitation and driving my Dad to ultimately protect Him. Then when my Dad wasn’t useful anymore, He’d kill him. ‘You’re right, clever boy’, He whispered at me while He started begging my Dad in a shaky voice. No. NO.  I was beyond rage now, only thinking _outOUToutOUToutOUToutOut_ while _pushing_ as hard as I could. Ever the overconfident ass, He started laughing at my sudden silence and let Himself relax for just one breath— 

\- _outOutoutOUToutOUToutOUTout **OUT OUT OUT**_ -

He had already been facing Argent, so I looked directly at Chris, praying he’d see Me looking out. I could already feel Him clawing at me. One chance, Stiles. One way to save everyone you care about, save your Dad, save them all. 

“Pull the trigger, c’mon”   _Argent, it’s ME. Believe me, it’s ME._ “Shoot me.”

That was all I was able to do before He dragged me back down. As I was forced back under, I saw Argent’s hard crystal eyes widen in surprise and his gun droop as his hand went slack. No, no, no! Don’t hesitate, Argent! Goddammit, no! I heard Allison call out, felt the Oni materialize and suddenly everything went dark. 

“Stiles! Stiles!” Argent snaps his fingers by my face for emphasis.  


“Ah, sorry. Kinda lost in thought.”  


“I can see that. I’m guessing you had a reason for tagging along with me instead of leaving with the others?”  


Here we go, Stilinski. Just say it. Just… “Why didn’t you shoot me that night?”

Argent goes completely still. “Why didn’t I…..You’re asking why I _didn’t_ shoot you at Derek’s loft?”

“Yeah. I mean, my Dad was ready to shoot you because he thought he was protecting me, but the Nogitsune was winning and you of all people knew how bad that could have been. So when He - the Nogitsune - was in the loft—”  


“Because it was you, Stiles.” Argent cuts me off.  “It was the Nogitsune who was in the loft, but He wasn’t the one that asked me to pull the trigger. It was you. I saw you fight to gain control. I know what kind of strength that took, Stiles, and why you were willing to die if it would save everyone else. The faith all of your friends had in you was not misplaced. Even knowing the history of nogitsune, that moment gave me hope. If anyone could survive that, it would be you. How could I kill you if you could still be saved? ”  


…what? “I could still…How did you know it was me? You’d just seen Derek tossed across the room, you’d been at the Station when the bomb went off and were facing potential charges for murder. All of that and more against a few seconds…Was it some kind of training because you’re a Hunter?”

“No, Stiles. Not because I was a Hunter.” Argent pulled his gaze from his left hand and the plain band he still wore. He met my eyes, quietly finishing his answer. “I knew because I was a father.” 

**Author's Note:**

>  _Thanks for reading! Shares are fantastic, Kudos are great and comments keep me going, so if you like this or have kind suggestions please let me know. :)_  
>  My other "Unscenes" and my Meta scribblings will be posted here on AO3 soon. Requests welcome! 
> 
> Follow me --> [ purplepints.tumblr.com ](http://purplepints.tumblr.com%20)


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